Calgary Herald

RUSSIANS UNBOWED CHEATERS

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Let’s face it, the Russians are serial cheaters, always have been, always will be. This not to say there’s an inherent cheat gene in Russians, but their country’s sportsmans­hip record at the Olympics has been abysmal, unrelentin­g and unrepentan­t.

Russian athletes have been stripped of 51 medals over the years for doping violations. That’s four times as many as the runner-up cheater nation and more than a quarter of the world total — and that’s just those who have been caught.

The cheating goes back before the Berlin Wall came down. It was Communism versus Capitalism then and all was seemingly fair in the Cold War of weapons and athletics.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the ideology changed but the cheating continued and even escalated through multiple sports at multiple times at Summer and Winter Games.

At Russia’s Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the cheating reached audacious new heights. An investigat­ion led by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren confirmed systemic drug cheating was encouraged and operated by the Russian government itself.

Various athletics governing bodies and the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee have handed out individual bans over the years and even suspended Russia’s discredite­d antidoping agency.

But the IOC has never issued a complete ban on Russian athletes from any Games, despite a recommenda­tion to do just that from the World Anti-Doping Agency for the Rio Olympics in 2016. Instead, it cowardly left it up to each sports federation.

Russia has remained unrepentan­t. Their sports minister was promoted to deputy prime minister. The vice-president of the All-Russian Athletic Federation said it was all just “good pharmacolo­gy” and should not be condemned. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the United States.

The IOC eventually banned the Russian Olympic Committee from the Pyeongchan­g Winter Games this year, but not its athletes, who were allowed to compete under the Olympic flag as an “Olympic athlete from Russia.”

The cheating continued. Two Russian athletes, a bobsled pilot and a curler, for goodness sakes, failed their doping tests.

And guess what, just days after the end of the Sochi Games, the IOC reinstated Russia’s Olympic membership.

Then last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency itself voted to reinstate Russia’s drugtestin­g program and softened some restrictio­ns, much to the disappoint­ment of investigat­or McLaren.

Lost in all of this are the honest athletes who make great sacrifices and often toil in obscurity for the love of their sports and our entertainm­ent. Imagine their thoughts and emotions of betrayal when they see the cheaters given a break again.

Canadian Olympian Beckie Scott, an antidoping crusader who quit WADA, says she’s “profoundly disappoint­ed” by the agency, which has “dealt a devastatin­g blow to clean sport. I’m quite dismayed.”

There is not enough evidence that Russia has learned its lesson. Why should it?

As Calgarians, we should be especially appalled. Many athletes are our friends, neighbours and colleagues. And, as the city contemplat­es hosting the 2026 Winter Games, we certainly don’t want the world’s greatest cheats to spoil the party — again.

If the Russians don’t want to play ball, we should not invite them to the game. Until they actually admit wrongdoing and confirm they have given up cheating, nothing short of a full ban for Russian athletes in Summer and Winter Games can be considered an appropriat­e response.

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